not singing

[calimac]

I still have not enough voice to sing with, but I went with B. to the annual carolling party anyway. Spent most of it trying to croak out the bass part as inconspicuously as possible; fortunately it was being conspicuous that would have been difficult.

One cool thing: since the melody of "O Come, O Come Immanuel" is a Gregorian chant, somebody suggested that we could give it that real old-timey flavor by abandoning the harmonization altogether, and just singing the melodic line in two parts in parallel open fifths. The result was impressively and even eerily stark.

Those of you buried by winter storms might consider relieving your feelings by trying this arrangement for such carols as "Winter Wonderland", "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", or even "White Christmas".

Comments

[k6rfm.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the stated goal was to have some people singing the melody too, so it would be melody+up a third +down a third throughout, rather than all open fifths around the melody. Trying to sing the whole thing as open fifths would have been fun (I love open fifths) but in a crowd like that somebody (like me) is going to find it feels right to sing the middle third.

("say your prayers! 'cause Santa Claus comes tonite.")

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

mnn ... if anybody was singing the third, it wasn't audible as such - the sound would have been very different - and that certainly wasn't my understanding of the instructions. I thought the idea was to use the third above and below the printed line in order to find a comfortable range.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I think the stated goal was to have some people singing the melody too, so it would be melody+up a third +down a third throughout

The instructions were confusing and I thought that's what she meant at first too. But eventually she did say that the goal was to have open fifths, i.e., no middle note. The explanation starting with the original in the middle was, as David says, just a way to get the ranges right. So I'm going to suggest that the next time she explains it, she dispense with the 3rd up/3rd down and just say melody in a lowish range plus a 5th above.

I did like the sound, especially in the verse part. It didn't seem quite as effective in the chorus for some reason.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Aieee! Parallel fifths!

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

heh heh heh

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

calimac, are there any recent CD recordings of Christmas music (any type) that you can recommend highly? A little late for this year, but there are always future Christmases. Our current Christmas music is all on records (which require frequent changing) and are beginning to sound more and more dated.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

My favorite carol collection of all time is We Three Kings by the Roches - no longer all that recent, but it did come out within the CD era. Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band have done several good carols albums, and more recently Prior also did a peculiar but interesting one with her band Steeleye Span titled Winter.

For other Christmas music, there's always Part I of Handel's Messiah, and Arcangelo Corelli's Christmas Concerto.

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Christmas music recommendations--we'll see which ones we can find.

[aradiva.livejournal.com]

I dig parallel fifths... I'm a fan of parallel organum. But the professors will give you lots of red marks if you put them in your counterpoint homework... (I got a few back in undergrad)

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Yes, well ... my harmony instructor drew a strict line around following the rules in exercises for the sake of learning them. I asked him to correct my own compositions, and pointed out a couple places I'd broken the rules deliberately, and he didn't turn a hair.